What Larks!
Making an Offer on a Lagoon 380 sail catamaran
Searching for our Dream Boat
We had spent the last year or so scouring Yachtworld constantly (I mean non-stop), dreaming about “the” boat. At my annual performance review, my boss noted the considerable lack of focus on work. He said my co workers found my constant mumbling of, "Manta, Lagoon, Leopard, must have now", bizarre and upsetting. He also mentioned that the IT servers, which can handle 10 billion searches a second, kept crashing due to too many hits on yachtworld.com. Is this all connected? Why are you asking me! (This is a joke, haha, I do actually work at work!)We contacted a broker who had shown us some cats before we sold the house. We talked about our timeline - 6 months to a year - and he wanted to show us a Manta. Now, every time I thought about my dream boat, it was always a Lagoon 380. Even when I knew we couldn't afford it. Even when I thought a Gemini was out of our price range and a 26 ft monohull would be in our price range. We both kept coming back to a Lagoon 380. And, if we are really talking dream / fantasy, not at all grounded in reality? A Lagoon 380 S2 owners version. Thanks.
I had lusted heavily over a listing for a Lagoon 380 S2 Owners Version that was in the BVIs, but it would be such a pain to even look at, let alone deliver, from so far away. It had also been on the market a long time, so there must be something wrong with it. I watched as the listing changed to Ft. Lauderdale. Too bad we don’t really have the money - and it’s such a bad time for us personally. Quickly the listing changed to “Under contract”. Not to worry, there are plenty of boats in the sea. Ha!
We moved forward with getting in touch with our broker and spoke to insurance and loan people (we wanted to figure out if sane, spreadsheeting individuals would realize we were poor and crazy and set us straight. Weirdly, they didn’t.) Everyone says they spend 6 to 8 months searching for "the" boat. The next evening, I noticed the Ft Lauderdale boat wasn’t under contract anymore. Matt wrote to our broker, who urged him to sign a contract right then and there. And then actually see the boat the next day. We wrote back and said it wasn’t the right time, but we hoped to find a similar boat in 6 months. He recommended we make an offer and request 6 months of dockage; he was planning an African safari and he really needed the commission.
Surely boats don’t fall into your lap? Surely we needed to look at 269 boats all over the country before finding “the one”?
Making the Offer
We didn’t think the owner would accept the offer - but it was so tantalizing - this boat was right here, not 1,500 miles away. And it was an owner’s version. We couldn’t help ourselves. It was over. It didn’t matter how much she was going to cost us, how much pain and suffering was ahead, whether or not there was a better deal - we were buying this boat. We submitted the offer. I drove to the bank on the way to work and wired the deposit. Now all we had to do was see the boat! Ha! Matt picked me up from work and “Cool Change” was playing on the radio. Oh, we are caught, hook line and sinker. Well played Mr. Yacht Broker, well played. |
| Seeing Independence for the first time |
First Impressions
Walking up to the boat, she seemed huge. Ridiculous. What would the two of us ever do with such an enormous boat? She is way too fancy for us. Out of our league. Is this real life? We’re not trust fund kids. We eat PB sandwiches for breakfast, PB sandwiches with chips for lunch, and grilled cheese sandwiches for dinner. On Friday nights, we split a beer. I wear clothes I bought from the thrift store 10 years ago.Matt tore apart the boat and took pictures of questionable items. We negotiated the offer, and she was ours, pending sea trial and bank and insurance approval. Our broker said the bank was no problem, he had spoken to them and our docs were in perfect shape. Is the bank looking at someone else's docs?
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| Yuck! Nobody is perfect! |
What will happen next? Will Matt and Lucy go bankrupt? Will the boat sink as soon as they leave a dock? Will picking up their first mooring buoy end in divorce? Stay tuned!
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